Born in 1964, CHO Young-wuk is one of the most famous and respected film music producers in the Korean industry. A big fan of music who has been steadily building up a collection of vinyl records since elementary school, he first worked for record label Seoul Records (now Kakao M) but was also interested in film production. One day, he was asked by producer SHIM Bo-kyoung if he knew someone who could supervise the soundtrack for <The Contact> (1997), since CHO also used...More

Born in 1964, CHO Young-wuk is one of the most famous and respected film music producers in the Korean industry. A big fan of music who has been steadily building up a collection of vinyl records since elementary school, he first worked for record label Seoul Records (now Kakao M) but was also interested in film production. One day, he was asked by producer SHIM Bo-kyoung if he knew someone who could supervise the soundtrack for <The Contact> (1997), since CHO also used to write about film music for radio show “Cinema Music Room with Jung Eun-im”. He ended up taking on the task himself, selecting all the songs that would make up the soundtrack of this cult melodrama. It became a turning point in Korean film music, as the soundtrack was praised by many and the CD sold over 700,000 copies, proving that film music could also be a lucrative business. Having successfully entered the film industry, CHO then worked on some of the most prominent films around the turn of the century, such as KIM Jee-woon’s debut feature <The Quiet Family> (1998) and PARK Chan-wook’s breakthrough film <Joint Security Area / JSA> (2000) as well as his cult classic <Old Boy> (2003). He’s to be credited for the use of baroque music conducted by Jordi Savall in <Sympathy for Lady Vengeance> (2005), Rachmaninov’s compositions in the thriller <Blood Rain> (2004) set in the Joseon Dynasty, and the mix of classical music with old Korean and American pop songs in <The Classic> (2003). In 2009, he won Best Music at the Blue Dragon Film Awards for <Thirst> (2008). He became one of the most sought-after music supervisors, as proven by his busy agenda in 2012 with music work on seven feature films, including RYOO Seung-wan’s <The Berlin File> and PARK Hoon-jung’s <New World>. Regularly nominated for awards, he has so far won four Blue Dragon Film Awards and two Grand Bell Awards. Less